Who in their right mind isn’t excited for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim? In addition to being the new project from one of the most brilliant, exciting filmmakers in the world, it happens to be a movie about giant robots that do battle with giant monsters. And today I got the chance to see exactly what that looks like.

During the massive Warner Bros. panel at San Diego Comic Con this afternoon – which also featured titles like The Hobbit and Man of Steel - Gullermo Del Toro, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Ron Perlman all came out on stage and presented world premiere footage from the upcoming science-fiction epic. I am somewhat sad to say that the footage show during the presentation is going to be the last we see from the film until the end of the year ( so says the director), but fortunately I took some quick notes and below you will find a full recap of all the footage shown.

The footage began with an old man and a kid walking over an icy tundra with a metal detector. As they walk the machine begins to beep faster and faster and the old man picks a toy robot out of the snow. But that’s not the only metal in the area. The old man slowly raises the detector into the air and a look of intense fear strikes across his face. In the distance a giant robot appears, with only one arm, and begins to stumble. It falls to its knees and then crashes with a huge boom into the snow face-first.

A title card saying “Summer 2013” appears on screen and we see a huge Kaiju rises out of the ocean and completely decimates abridge as jets fly in to try and attack (they aren’t super effective). We then see our first look at the cast, including Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, and Idris Elba, who line up and get in their suits, ready to pilot their Jaegars. Kikuchi and Hunnam are shown inside of their mech piloting in unison, throwing punches that sync with the robots moving. There are shots of Charlie Day walking into a very elaborate building, and Ron Perlman staring into the sky while wearing red sunglasses. A Jaeger and a Kaiju fight in the middle of the ocean We hear Elba giving an inspirational speech to a group of pilots, motivating them to get ready for a big fight. It ends with him declaring, “Today we are cancelling the apocalypse,” as we see one of the Jaegars level a huge blow on a monster.

Considering that the movie is still about a year away from release, the most impressive thing about the footage was just how amazing all of the effects look. Though I’m sure there’s still a ton of work to be done, the Jaegers and Kaiju both looks surprisingly polished and photorealistic. So one can only imagine how great the final product is going to look.

Pacific Rim won’t arrive in theaters until almost exactly one year from now, set to come out on July 12, 2013, but for now if you want to see more from the movie head over to our Blend Film Database.